Greens honor their old growth

They’ve spent a half-century protecting tiny flowers on Yellow Island in the San Juans, an old growth cedar forest along Ellsworth Creek, grasslands in Moses Coulee, eagles in the Skagit Valley and a host of other habitats and places across Washington.

The Nature Conservancy will celebrate 50 years of conservation work in the Evergreen State with a dinner Wednesday at Fremont Studios.

It will feature Dr. Jane Goodall, world-renowned primatologist and United Nations Messenger of Peace. The program also includes Tlingit storyteller Gene Tagaban and the African dance troupe Gansango.

The evening will also honor the environmental movement’s own “old growth” in Washington State, green activists who have been around for all or most of the past half-century.

Already frequently honored, a bevy of “conservation heroes” will be recognized, many of whom have worn many hats. (One oft-heard criticism of the state’s environmental movement has been the unchanging leadership of several old-line green groups, and failure to recruit young activists.)

The list of honorees include:

Polly Dyer of the Olympic Coast Alliance, also the North Cascades Conservation Council and Olympic Park Associates;

Bill Ruckelshaus, twice boss of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and until recently head of the Puget Sound Partnership;

Kathy Fletcher, founder and coon-to-retire executive director of People for Puget Sound, and Carter-era Council on Environmental Quality staffer;

Ex-Govs. Mike Lowry and Dan Evans, rivals in a fierce 1983 Senate race and co-creators of the Washington Wildlife and Recreation Coalition;

Rick Leaumont, a longtime leader of the Lower Columbia Basin Audubon Society and campaigner for the Hanford Reach National Monument;